I love my readers. Like my youngest daughter with a pile of peas, my readers devour HR-compliance wonk and nuance. For example, last week I ran a post called, “Someone who doesn’t know that they have a serious health condition can still get FMLA, you guys.” That post was about…
Articles Posted in Disability
Pay attention HR! Transgender employees may have ADA (disability) rights too.
My decision to sit at the computer and begin blogging at 10:48 PM on a Sunday has backfired on me, for sure. This will teach me to go out for a few drinks after my kid’s soccer game. That is, on Friday before I left work I read this headline, “Transgender…
A trucking company agrees to pay $65K, because it didn’t hire an amputee to drive its trucks
Yep, we’re gonna continue yesterday’s discussion of how stereotyping and false assumptions can create yuuuuuuge Americans with Disabilities Act problems for employers. Last week, the EEOC announced (here) that a Texas trucking company agreed to pay $65,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit. But, not just any ADA lawsuit. This one involved…
Fear of the Ebola Monster, and acting on other stereotypes, can create scary ADA lawsuits
There are three types of disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act: a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities (an “actual disability”), or a record of a physical or mental impairment that substantially limited a major life activity (“record of”), or an actual…
Join me for a free ACA / ADA / FMLA event next month!
Do employee-leave issues and ACA woes have you feeling like this? Well, next month, my friends at Kistler Tiffany and I have got your back. We’re presenting two free, live seminars to help you tackle your ACA, ADA, and FMLA issues. The first will be on Wednesday, May 10, 2017 from 9:30 AM…
How the heck does a plaintiff without a disability go to trial on her ADA claims?!?
The biggest impact on employers, when the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act took effect on January 1, 2009, was to downplay whether an employee actually had a disability, and get businesses focusing more on whether there existing a reasonable accommodation that would permit an employee to perform the essential functions…
Did HR do a bus driver with a disability dirty? How you can avoid the same apparent mistake.
Not cool, dude. Hatter v. WMATA (opinion here) involves an individual with sleep apnea who applied for a bus driver position. He got the job conditionally, but later had the offer rescinded. What happened?!? Well, the offer was rescinded because the plaintiff chose not to submit sleep apnea test results to…
Three pitfalls to avoid when setting essential job functions and determining ADA accommodations
A few months ago, I was waxing poetic about plutonium, how to establish essential job functions, and quality-testing diet scrapple. What got into me? Now, I’ve got a cautionary tale, in the form of a recent federal court opinion, to help you good folks navigate away from some of the…
No, not even the ADA requires accommodating an alcoholic’s DUI-related incarceration
By Versageek (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia CommonsAlcoholism can be a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The EEOC notes here that the ADA may protect a “qualified” alcoholic who can meet the definition of “disability.” What is a “qualified” alcoholic? Someone who can perform…
2d Cir: Pharmacists must inject customers. Oh, word?
No, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t say, “Oh, word?” But, it did just toss a $2,600,000 jury award in favor of a pharmacist in an Americans With Disabilities Act case. From $2.6M to zero That’s zero point zero. In Stevens v. Rite Aid Corp. (opinion here), a pharmacist…